Chapter 177: Stress and the End of the Regular Season
After three wins over the Heat, the Wizards have played six of the remaining 22 games in early March, winning 5-1 and still maintaining an 83.33% win rate.
The Wizards' overall record improved to 55-11.
While people were still chattering about the Wizards giving up the game against the Lakers, the Wizards continued to exert their strength, winning a wave of 5 consecutive wins, and the one that won the game against the Heat was a wave of 6 consecutive wins.
In the blink of an eye, the Wizards caught up with the best result in franchise history.
At this time, the 60-11 Wizards still have 11 games to play.
All eyes are on what the Wizards can do in their next 11 games.
Because from this point on, every time they win, they will be making history that belongs to the Wizards.
However, just when the momentum was high, the Wizards lost the game.
The six-game winning streak came to an abrupt end, and it was the Houston Rockets who finished ninth in the West to end the Wizards' winning streak.
Without Yao Ming, the Rockets have not completely lost their competitiveness.
Kevin. Martin & Louis. Scola and the two have played very well this season, and in the west, where there are many strong players, they are still tightly clenching the gap and refusing to back down.
After the upset victory over the Wizards, the Rockets are also two wins away from the Grizzlies, who are eighth in the West, and they still have a big chance in the remaining 10 games.
And the loss to the Rockets made Wang Xiao realize that his players were under a lot of pressure at this time.
The team has now broken more than 50 years of history, and every step they take is to make new history.
When the players are on the field, it is inevitable that there will be pressure to lose the game and not be able to create a glorious history......
This is especially true of young players such as Curry and Harden.
These players are talented but they are still too young and have too few things to do.
Wang Xiao can clearly feel that veterans like Butler and Jamison don't have much pressure.
It's definitely not a good sign, it's too much pressure and it can have a big impact on a player's mentality, not just for the regular season games, but more likely for the playoffs immediately after the regular season.
Ruining the playoffs for a few regular-season wins would be more than worth the loss.
So Wang Xiao immediately made adjustments and began to increase rotation, significantly reducing the playing time of players such as Curry and Harden.
At the same time, he also talked with Butler and Jamison on this issue, asking the two veterans to find a way to enlighten the young players who are obsessed.
Wang Xiao's adjustment made the team lose to the Rockets and then lose the game with the New York Knicks.
As a result, the Wizards' record has changed to 60-13.
At this moment, many people began to swear.
"Look, I'll just say the Wizards aren't worth looking forward to, and they still have 67 wins? Now it would be nice for them to win 65 wins, as the experts predicted. ”
"After all, it's a young team, and after all, it can't be compared with those old strong teams. In this way, in the playoffs, the Wizards may also be difficult to make a difference, last season was lucky to beat the Magic to reach the Eastern Conference finals, this season there are the Heat, Celtics and Knicks These Big Three teams, it is much more difficult to enter the Eastern Conference finals than last season. ”
Of course, some people pointed out that the Wizards' second loss to the Knicks had a frequent rotation of players, and Curry and Harden did not play much time, so they obviously did not play their best.
However, such a voice did not cause much repercussions.
There seems to be a phenomenon in the league right now that no one likes the Wizards.
In addition to local fans in Washington, the vast majority of fans in other cities are generally not very interested in the Wizards.
There are many reasons for this, such as the head coach of the Wizards being an Asian.
Racial discrimination is all too common in the United States, and any Chinese American or Chinese student in the United States can feel that extremely uncomfortable and deep malice.
This kind of discrimination may not only be verbal and rude, but also attitudinal.
What the? Do yellows also play basketball? Can a yellow man be a head coach in the NBA?
Wang Xiao's appearance and success in the NBA have made many people with a sense of racial superiority look gloomy, and they may not openly express discrimination against Wang Xiao's skin color in formal occasions, but it does not prevent them from secretly doing things in the way of hating the Wizards.
Of course, not all fans are shady racists, and there are many fans who don't like the Wizards team because they don't like Wang Xiao at all, but simply don't like the Wizards' style of play or the team's star players.
Even though Curry, the leading pillar of the Wizards, has a good appearance and a popular style of play, he is only a sophomore rookie after all.
The players that most fans like are Kobe, James, Wade, Garnett, and Anthony.
If you already have a favorite player, it is natural to hate the opponent of your favorite player.
The Wizards won this season too simply, many people found that their favorite stars scored desperately, scoring 30 points or 40 points in a game, but the team was finally defeated by the Wizards by a big score, who would be happy?
Under such an emotional infection, it is natural to hate the Wizards.
For these voices, Wang Xiao seemed very calm.
Regardless of the outside world's evaluation, the key to defining whether a team is big or not is still the game, the victory.
As long as you can keep winning, nothing else matters.
……
After two consecutive defeats, the mentality of the team's players began to change under the conditioning of veterans such as Butler and Jamison.
Once there is no pressure and no obsession, the Wizards are still the strongest and top team in the league!
After the Knicks, the Wizards' opponent is the Cleveland Cavaliers, a team that collapsed because James "decided 1" to replace talent on the South Coast, and the team with the lowest record in the league this season has no resistance in front of the Wizards.
At 124:98, a 26-point bloody slaughter seemed to signal that the Wizards' state had adjusted.
But a lot of people don't realize it, for example, the Miami Heat.
On April 1, the Wizards traveled to Miami to play the Heat in their final regular-season game of the season.
Many Heat fans thought that this home game would be the best time for the team to get revenge, but the result once again disappointed them.
At 117:109, at the home court of the Heat, the Wizards once again won the game by 8 points, completing the feat of four kills against the Heat in the regular season.
And then, when everyone was caught off guard, the Wizards actually won a 6-1 record in the remaining 7 games, and the final victory was fixed at 68-14!